Stravinsky conducts in the Royal Festival Hall

First performed at the Opéra de Paris in June 1910 The Firebird was the work that catapulted Russian composer Igor Stravinsky to international fame. But it wasn’t an instant hit with everyone; when the piece received its Russian premiere later that year, the avant-garde magazine Apollon reported that ‘many deserted the [hall] during the performance of this suite’.

Fifty-five years later, in September 1965, when the composer conducted a performance of the same work in our Royal Festival Hall the reception was undoubtedly warmer than it had been in St Petersburg. So fervent were the applause and requests for curtain calls that Stravinsky was only able to bring them to an end by returning to our stage in his coat and hat.

Though this Philharmonia Orchestra (or New Philharmonia Orchestra as they were then known) concert has gone down in folklore for its finale, the reason for the great composer’s attendance was actually earlier in the evening’s repertoire, the European premiere of what would be his last major orchestral composition, his Variations: Aldous Huxley in memoriam. The performance of the new work, as well as a rendition of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, were led by the composer’s great friend, the conductor Robert Craft. 

But the 83-year-old composer, in what would be his final London appearance, couldn’t resist lifting the baton himself, opening the concert with Fireworks, before returning to the rostrum to close with The Firebird. Stravinsky arrived in London three days ahead of the 14 September concert, taking up residence across the river at The Savoy and leading the New Philharmonia in a rehearsal at the now sadly demolished Kingsway Hall, the morning before the performance.

Despite the significance of the concert, tickets, though in some demand, were reasonably priced, with those lucky enough to be in the auditorium paying up to four guineas (the equivalent to £70 today) for prime seats in the stalls, lower boxes, and front rows of the balcony. Also present in the Royal Festival Hall was the newly appointed Head of BBC2, David Attenborough, watching first-hand as part of the concert was televised on his channel’s Music 625 series.

Thanks to that broadcast thousands of people watching at home were also able to witness Stravinsky’s ‘electrifying’ conducting, and the preservation of the resulting footage means we’re also able to revisit the performance here and enjoy an incredibly rare glimpse of one of the greats in action.